Boys Soccer: La Salle wins second straight PCL title

PHILADELPHIA — Saturday afternoon on the very same field, La Salle College High struggled to get its offense going.

The Explorers never scored in regulation or two overtimes at Archbishop Ryan.

It took a shootout to beat the Raiders and get La Salle back to the Philadelphia Catholic League final for the third straight year.

After defeating Father Judge a year ago in the final in overtime, the Explorers expected to have their hands full once again Thursday night.

In the 17th minute of the first half , though, the offense finally found a groove, Andrew Schieve setting up Matt Lucas to give the team the lead.

Chris McCrea would add a second goal late in the half and Jack Dusing sealed it with a third midway through the second half, La Salle capturing its second straight Philadelphia Catholic League title, 3-0.

“We were comfortable the way we played (Thursday),” said Dusing, who took a feed from Mark Grasela and headed the ball back toward the net to give the Explorers the final goal of the match. “Our offense was cranking, unlike the other day. But it doesn’t matter how we do it, 3-0, 1-0, penalty kicks, a win’s a win.”

With the win, La Salle (18-2-1) advanced to Friday’s District 12 Class AAA championship game, to be played against Northeast at Northeast High at 7 p.m. The winner of that will move into the first round of states Tuesday against the fourth-place team out of District One.

“Everyone knew we lost a great group of guys last year, but I don’t think anyone gave us enough credit for who we had coming back,” said McCrea, whose shot from out front gave La Salle a 2-0 lead with just under four minutes left in the first half.

“To go up 2-0 was just insane. None of us thought it would be a wide-open game like this. We thought it would be a lot closer. This is a great way to end the (PCL) season.”

La Salle was held scoreless for 110 minutes of field play Saturday by Ryan, winning 4-2 in the shootout.

“After Ryan, we really went back to the basics with our scoring and our offense,” Lucas said. “We got lucky there.

“Winning this is the greatest feeling. Nobody thought we’d get here. We knew we had a lot of work to do.”

Lucas’ goal gave La Salle the momentum it needed. McCrea’s tally had them feeling confident. When Dusing scored to get it to 3-0, the Explorers knew it was their night.

“I think once we got that third one, we knew we had them,” said Grasela, who got the assist on the Dusing goal. “That solidified it for us.

“A lot of people doubted us this year. We lost a lot of people. We came out and proved a lot of people wrong.”

To look at how different the Explorers’ lineup is from last year, it demonstrates the growth the team had during the PCL season. Nearly all the big plays a year ago came from players who have since graduated. Last year’s squad was, for the most part, a unit which had developed over a couple seasons into the title team of a year ago. This year, the Explorers rebuilt and reloaded all at the same time.

“When you look at what we graduated last year, that was like 65 goals from just three guys,” said head coach Bob Peffle, this his seventh PCL title with La Salle. “So many really good players, great power and talent.

“We felt there were still horses in the barn, though, it’s just they would take on different roles this year.”

The roles may have changed, the result did not.

Even Hurricane Sandy causing the match to be moved to a third different day, on a third field, at a third different time, could not stop the Explorers from succeeding in earning their second straight PCL championship victory.